krzysiektom I cannot understand how some viewers can praise this "film". Probably they are fans of computer games and see it as a sort of extension of a game. For me it was a total cinematic disappointment: mediocre, wooden acting, with a poor and ugly actress as the main character, dreadful dialog, boring script, dreadfully ineffective, cartoonish action sequences, overall poor production values. The film looks really cheap,as if made in Poland during time of the martial law, when there was shortage of virtually everything. Even the choir music was rubbish, out of place and sounding artificially here. I seriously ponder if this is not THE worst movie I ever saw, and I tell ya I saw thousands of films in my life.

dbborroughs Just saw Mamoru Oshii's AVALON. Its a live action film made in Polish with a Polish cast by a crew of Japanese film makers.Its about a virtual reality war game that some people play for money, and which causes some people to become vegetables when they never leave.Its a beautiful film that is pure eye candy of the post industrial sort. I love every frame of this film's images.As a movie its so painfully slow and uninviting as to be almost unbearable.The trouble is that Ash, the central character, is so strong silent and introspective as to be a black hole. Only when real people interact with her is there any sense of life in the film.I am shocked that the man who made such wonderful character driven anime such as the PATLABOR films, GHOST IN THE SHELL can make such a dud as this when it comes to a central character. JIN ROH an animated film he wrote and is a cousin to this film in some ways has a heart and soul that is missing from this movie.The film is not badly made- far from it its very well directed except that Ash is missing as anything other than an object to be moved around the screen. I can't believe her part was written or conceived in any way at all simply because its nothing more than a place holder. Sequences simply fail to work on any real level since Ash is such a life sucking force that anything good gets stretched in order to cover the hole in the center.If you can see this for free or cheap give it a try but other wise....PS Find the score on CD since its awesome. Its the perfect match to the visuals.

symbolt Avalon can be seen as part of a trilogy, the first installment of which would be Ghost in the Shell, the last, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence. Avalon contains many direct references to Ghost in the Shell, and shares a lot of its motif of philosophical search for the self. They also share the cyberpunk imagery, and the fact that the main heroine is an impassive female warrior. I mention all this because I think it's inadvisable to watch Avalon if you haven't watched Ghost in the Shell (and pondered on it a bit). Avalon can be extremely heavy at times. This movie does not make you think; watching Avalon is like trying to decipher a zen poem, which I think can be done, but not through intellectual decoding.In Avalon, a lone hunter in a virtual reality game shares her life with a basset dog, and all her activities seem to be centered around getting better in the illegal, dangerous game and getting food the dog with the money she earns there. The game is illegal because you can die playing it; "really" die in the concrete, bleak urban world that Ash, the main hero, lives every day. However, apart from the possibility of virtual death, the game offers a secret - the highest level, Avalon. The legendary Avalon is the "Isle of the Blessed", where King Arthur lies in eternal sleep. In the movie, it is a mystery, which haunts Ash ever since the deaths of her last player team.The search for Avalon is depicted in the most beautiful cinematography. The plot is very symbolic and should be considered so; the search for the gate to Avalon can mean many things, and the nature of the quest changes as Ash is getting closer. However, like Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, the movie is heavy and long, and the characters engage in philosophical discussion every time they can. With all its beautiful cinematography, interesting acting (very automaton-like, but intentionally so), and a set of intriguing philosophical questions, this movie suffers from heavy-handed imagery and symbols, sometimes. Hard science fiction pushes the science as far as possible; Avalon is an example of hard cyberpunk, where the confines of the conceptual world dreamed up by the director are explored fully and unremittingly.If you are ready to take a film not as only entertainment, but also a challenge to your thinking power, Avalon, like all Oshii's movies, is a thrill. However, beautiful, intellectually rewarding science fiction does not have to be longish and heavy, as Avalon is at times. Watch Ghost in the Shell before it, watch Ghost in the Shell: Innocence after it, and approach this movie at your most relaxed, for it to be a rewarding rewarding experience; it can wear you down, otherwise.One more thing: if you're Polish, watch the Japanese dub with English subtitles. The Polish lines were translated literally from the Japanese, and they are very often almost gibberish (and the Japanese voice-acting is better, too). Also, do not let the fact that the movie's virtual world seems to be set in your local K-mart detract from your watching experience.

jomaier-1 While movies like Blade Runner, Gattaca and Dark City illustrate the potential to artificially >produce live< together with its uncontrollable feedbacks, Avalon plays in a world were life is worth nothing, since it is thought to be artificial. Ash's role is defined by stalking down everything and everyone who moves along. With her virtual reality gear on, herself and others might easily mistake her appearance for an avatar like Lara Croft. At first sight the goal of the game is to access Avalon – a sacred island that grants eternal youth and wisdom at the price of total oblivion. Ironically Ash is almost most of her time already in that state of mind – a beautiful young survivor in your favourite present-game-show. At the climax of Avalon's story appears a potential male-female-love-encounter: First as an identity-reassuring phantasm since Ash apparently is playing the game to meet her loved-one. And last the encounter serves as a potential (emergency) exit to gain back a sense of human reality. 1 am going to argue that in either case human reality remains a lost concept, but worthwhile to be maintained as an illusion of real virtuality -- in order to avoid sudden death and other unbearable events within game-levels without a reset button.